Small Town Wren

I met up with a friend yesterday to help her construct a blanket. She wasn’t sure how to do the crochet bits. Silly me thinking I’d be the only one doing the teaching.  Monica’s mission in life, apparently, is to get as many people spinning on this planet as possible. We hadn’t even gotten started before she was thrusting a spindle into my hands and bag full of fiber. She gave me a choice of spindles, so I got to choose one with a very nice green resin whorl.

And a short while later, I was spinning. Spinning as in making yarn.  Oh dear. Textiles are very rapidly taking over my life.  I suppose there are worse fates to have, but I do think I may be hitting the point where it’d be embarrassing to show all the unused yarn I have to, well, anyone.  The only problem is I’m not sure how to ply and/or set the twist, so I can’t actually do anything with all my brand new yarn. Rats!

So now that I have graduated and have subsequently found myself on the job-seeking beat, I’ve found I have more time to do what I really enjoy. Namely, knitting.

A friend was ever so kind enough to send me a lovely Twist Collective pattern (Mary Jane) to work on in my down time. And work on it I have, using some lovely Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy that I got on sale. It’s a hemp/cotton/modal blend. Which means it’s murder on the fingers. And yet, somehow worth it. I’ve only had to rip out my needles and frog back, oooh, eleventy-billion times. I’m not a very careful knitter. I hurry and make large, glaring mistakes that I don’t catch until much too long afterward. That’s okay though. Sometimes I just let the mistakes live on.

Now isn’t that lovely? The red of that deck chair really brings out the…uh…yellowish-tannish-muddle color in it. I’m a bit farther on now than I was a week ago when I took that picture. Shut up, it can take me a week to post on my blog if I want it to. Psssh.

Ah, and when I’m not knitting, I am, of course, doing naughty things like buying yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. Though in my defense, going to a seconds sale is a ridiculously cheap way to get a lot of fancy yarn. Here. Let me show you:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Dream in Color Smooshy. And not just any color either. It’s their April 2011 Exclusive Club Color Posy.  That yarn right there? Retails for $24.00-$26.00. I kid you not. I bought it at the company seconds sale for $5.00. It has about foot of “damaged” yarn in it (ie not spun to standards) but that little defect is hardly anything, especially when you consider that skein has 420 yards in it. The color is much prettier in person, too.

So no, I’m not ashamed I spent all the money in my wallet that day. Not the least. Especially since I am now done buying yarn for the next few years.  Yeah. A few years.  I mean that.   I think.

Yeah, so remember how I said I was feeling better? That was totally a lie and I got sick again a few days later. I’m still a little achy, but I’m hoping to be triumphant once and for all. I mean, jeebus, this whole mono thing is incredibly lame. I’m so over it.

But I’m still on spring break, and I have refused to let a stupid thing like being horribly diseased ruin that. If I’m going to be sick, I’m at least going to have fun, dammit! So I bought myself a present: new crochet hooks and a bunch of yarn. I sort of have this thing where I feel a thousand times happier when I’m physically making something, so I crocheted up a storm this week.  Case in point:

Those are going to turn into a blanket at some point. I only need to make, oh, you know, 42 more of them. I also made a delightful hat. I’m wearing it right now. How snazzy is that?